As of now untitled story
by Ofunu
Summary: Kyuubi becomes Juubi. Naruto makes a deal with it, in exchange of its freedom, Naruto gets the power of ten different beings. Clichés, lots of plot holes, no lemons, probably no pairing and possibly never going to be complete. Read at your own risk.
1. Chapter 1

**._.-._.-Ignore at your own discretion-._.-._.**

**I know I should be updating my other stories instead of starting a new one, trust me, I know. But for some reason, call it author's block or whatever you want, I'm unable to write new chapters for my current stories.**

**A while back I read somewhere in this site, that the best way to get out of an author's block is to focus on something else, ideally another story, and thus I thought 'hey! I have tried everything else, what can I lose trying this?' and lo and behold here is my attempt at getting out of this author's block. Hopefully it will work and I will update my other stories; Werefox preferably, I have let that one forgotten quite a long time already.**

**A WARNING: ****I don't think I will ever finish this story. I'm just using it as a stepping stone to be able to update the other ones, and publishing it for the heck of it!**** People are free to use what I write in this story for whatever non-profitable p****urpose they wish, I don't care.**

**I don't want to take this story too seriously because then it would lose its purpose, thus it will prob****ably turn into crap**** and have tons of plot holes****. Flames, ****critiques ****and advice ****will be ****duly ****ignored for the same reason****, ****in this story only****. I gladly accept all of that for my other stories****.**

**So, on with the story, it's quite cliché and I know that so don't even bother pointing it out.**

**Standard disclaimer: I only own food and the computer where I'm writing this. Other than that I'm completely broke.**

.-._.-._.

**Prologue**

Fox spirits, beasts of myth and mystery. No one knows much about them because few, if any, have seen them. The village I live in, however, is afraid out of its wits by their mere mention, and by extension, me. I read somewhere that ignorance breeds fear, throw fear into a crowd and it will join with their confidence in numbers to breed hate, which then will grow into violence. So, if you do the math it's quite obvious that, since they fear me, my life isn't that good.

But I'm a different case, I know about fox spirits. I should, since I coexist with one every day. In a beginning I didn't know about this soul residing within me. I was kept in the shadows about it by the man I called a grandfather, and learned of it only because someone let it slip, if not for that, I would still be clueless.

Since I learned of it, I never talked with the fox, I was afraid and, to be honest, resentful towards it. Until a while after the revelation I lost control and the fox took over.

_Flashback_

"_Is this the first time you lose someone important to you?"—asked the masked shinobi within the ice mirrors—"this is the life of shinobi"_

"_Shut up"—whispered Naruto while holding the body of his rival—"I won't forgive you"_

_End Flashback_

After that I don't know the details of what happened, the rage took over and I lost all sense of myself. The fox went on a rampage against the first target in front of it, he mauled Haku mercilessly.

In the end I regained my senses and we won that fight. But I was so exhausted by the end of it that I was unconscious for two days, that's what my companions told me anyway. It was during this time that I first talked with the beast.

_Flashback_

"_**So the human finally dares to visit me"**__—said the fox as its host entered stepped in front of the cage it was in—__**"Weren't you afraid, kid?"**_

"_I don't know how you did it, stupid fur ball, but I won't ever let you take over again!"—growled Naruto. The fox seemed actually amused by this._

"_**Hahaha, as if I would want to actually take your weak puny body! If I did before, it was so that I didn't die. It's not in my best interest for you to perish just yet"**_

"_I don't care, you will be sorry if it happens once more. And what do you mean with just yet?"_

"_**What it means, human, is that I just have to wait a little longer and I won't need you alive anymore"—**__the fox said this with a cruel smirk__._

"_Oh yeah? And why's that?"—asked Naruto apprehensively._

"_**Hehehe, because in just little more than a month from now, I will be 10,000 years old, at that time I will finally get my last boost of power and rise to be the king of demons, the Juubi! Hahahahaha"**_

"_So, it's not that you will be free then, you just become more powerful, that's fine, you will still be caged in there anyway"—said Naruto. Kyuubi got angry at that._

"_**You will free me human! You won't dare to keep me prisoner! You humans have no right to keep me caged! I will devour your soul brat!"**_

"_The fact that you got so worked up just means I'm right. Not even with that power up you will get, will you be able to break away from me"—Naruto smirked triumphantly. This comment gave the Kyuubi pause._

"_**You're insightful! Since when?"**__—The fox asked. Clearly taken aback by Naruto's uncharacteristic demeanor._

"_Where have you been stupid legged rug?"—asked the blond openly smirking—"That I act stupid for my own safety doesn't mean I'm actually dumb"_

"_**And why would you do that? Letting the other humans believe you're weak"**_

"_Now who is dumb? Because if they fear me as it is and become violent because of it, then if they thought I was a bigger threat they would act out. As of now they only make cruel remarks about me, I can live with that no problem. But if they fear me more, they will become more desperate to get rid of me, and then they will openly try to kill me, something they are wary to do for now because of the Hokage, but even that won't be able to stop them if they become desperate. I act weak, fox, because of you (1)"_

"_**Then you really are stupid, if you show them that you're strong then they will be wary of acting"**_

"_No, they won't. They would if there were few of them, but there are many so they will act, knowing that in the end they will overcome me with numbers. With enough people even civilians can kill the Hokage, and I'm not as strong"—said the blond—"Even with you I wouldn't be able to survive something like that. I'm not dumb, I know you have been healing whatever wounds I get while training, but I also noted that it takes some time. If worse comes to shove, not even your healing will save me from death (2)"_

"_**Foolish human! Prey will always run away from predators, you only have to show them which you are and they will run"**_

"_Maybe, but that's instinct. Humans have next to no instinct at all; they have overcome it with their so called rationality. It's the reason there have been so many wars"_

"_**Well then, if that's true then I won't need to make you free me. The humans of your village will do it for me"—**__the fox chuckled malevolently. Naruto narrowed his eyes._

"_Why?"_

"_**The moment I get my rise of power, not even this seal will be able to contain the energy that will be released. Everyone, regardless of if they are shinobi or civilian, children or adults, nearby or faraway, they all will notice the wave of power that my ascension will cause! And they will all point to you when it happens. And they will deem you a threat and kill you. Hahahaha"**_

"_If that happens you will die too!"—growled Naruto._

"_**And just as I said. It won't matter; my only concern is that you don't die before that. If you die I will only go to makai, it won't be permanent though, I will be able to escape easily enough and in less than a year I will be roaming the earth again. This time, as the demon king!"**_

"_Really? And what prevents me from informing the Hokage of this?"—asked a peeved Naruto.—"What impedes me of preparing, now that you have informed me, a new vessel for you to be sealed again. If I learned something from Haku, it's to protect that which I love. And while most people in Konoha are assholes that I couldn't care less about, there are a few who I care about. If I'm going to die because of you, I will make sure you can't do anything to harm them"_

"_**You damn human! I will crush you and that village if you even dare and try to seal me again! I will devour all your souls!"**_

"_You will do that anyway"—said Naruto calmly. He felt better now that he had gotten the fox annoyed._

"_**If you do anything to prevent my freedom I will make sure"**_

"_You got me curious, what happens if I die before that?"—asked the blond._

"_**And why should I tell you?"**_

"_Because, you seem so desperate to prevent such outcome that I might just try to find out"—the kyuubi's eyes narrowed dangerously._

"_**You wouldn't dare"**_

"_Wouldn't I? Now that you're threatening the people I love I might do just about anything"—the young shinobi challenged—"So, why are you afraid of me dying before your power boost?"_

"_**Grrrrr…Because, if I go to makai before then, the countdown to my power boost will restart. I will have to wait 1000 more years before I get another chance, and by then the Hachibi will have a chance too. There cannot be two kings, so I will have to fight for the title, and while I can beat the Hachibi now, I won't be so sure by then since we will have equal powers. If you die now, I will remain being a kyuubi and hachibi will become a kyuubi too. It's not in my best interest to have a rival for kingship"**_

"_Hehehe. I see"—Naruto said slowly, Kyuubi narrowed his eyes suspiciously—"What says you, Kyuubi, if we strike a deal?"_

"_**Hehehe, you're in no position to strike deals kid. In the current situation I have the complete advantage. There is nothing you could offer that would interest me"**_

"_Really? I can offer not to kill you now"_

"_**You? Kill me? Hahahaha, good joke kid, but you've neither the gut nor the power to do so"**_

"_You forget we are in my mind, my realm, my reality. I can effectively destroy you if I wish and then you will be sent to makai"_

"_**You will die in the process, runt"**_

"_Do you want to try? I have free time from here until I have to wake up"_

"_**What do you want?"**_

"_Are you really so afraid of not becoming the juubi?"_

"_**I'm the kyuubi! The strongest demon in existence! I won't let the hachibi take the throne just because one little human brat didn't know his place! I will not be inferior to that stupid squid! Name your price, scum"**_

"_Hehehe, who would have thought? You were right Kyuubi, the people of Konoha won't doubt when pointing at me the moment they feel your ascension. I want two things from you. I want the means to survive me releasing you. I won't have you inside me any longer if I can help it, the moment you become Juubi my life will become worse and if I release you that can change. With you and me being separated, people won't have more option than to accept I'm not you. The second thing I want is a substitute for the power I will lose the moment I set you free. I want the means to defend those I care about from anyone, including you"_

"_**Grrr…impudent human. You dare ask impossibilities. Neither request can I grant. The first because this seal was made with the power of the Shinigami, the power of a demon can't override the power of a god. Other than that, I know nothing about seals so I can't do shit about this one, otherwise we wouldn't be having this discussion. The second request is even more outrageous, no matter how powerful I become, I cannot grant power equal to that of demons; the most I would be able to do is grant you power equal to that of powerful humans"**_

"_I see. Then what can you do, useless demon"—Kyuubi, insulted by the remark decided to brag about his power, again._

"_**You insolent human, you cannot even hope to be as powerful as the weakest demon. Don't ever call me useless! I'm the next king of demons! My powers go beyond your wildest dreams. You humans have seen how destructive I can be, that's only the surface of my abilities! I can breathe life to the dead land, or bring famine to the richest soils! I can tap into the knowledge of the universe and tear down the dimensional walls! I can exterminate an entire race with but a flick of my tails! You dare not…"**_

"_Hold on! Let's track back a little. What was that you said?"—asked Naruto quite seriously._

"_**Hmp…that I can exterminate an entire race with but a flick of my tail. I haven't done so with the humans because you're so spread across the land that it's just not worth it."**_

"_Not that, you stupid fox. The thing about dimensions. Are you telling me there are other dimensions out there?"_

"_**Millions!"**_

"_Perfect, and are there humans in other realities? Can you bring them here?"_

"_**Sadly, yes. And if by here you mean inside your mind, then yes. But I can only bring those who died the moment I summoned them or just an instant before."**_

"_Then, this is what we will do, fox. You say you can give me the power equal to that of powerful humans. The day of your ascension, just as you get your new power, you will summon the ten most powerful humans you can get from ten different dimensions and give me their power and knowledge. Since you can't fulfill my request about being safe during the extraction, I also want your word that you won't attack the place I call home"_

"_**Hehehe, it won't matter, brat. Nothing will save you from perishing when you release me, why bother? Besides, why should I grant you the power of ten? You shall be content with one"**_

"_I suppose that you don't want to become the TEN tailed demon king. You want your tenth tail, you will give me the power of ten"—said Naruto defiantly._

"_**Tch…alright. But not even with the power of ten humans together will you be able to defy any demon"**_

"_Give me your word. As a demon, and as a future demon king, promise on your soul that you shall fulfill your end of this deal"_

"_**And I shall bind you likewise, human, to fulfill yours"**_

_End Flashback_

After that, Kyuubi and I talked for the remaining of my unconsciousness. Discussing the details of our agreement. On the day of his ascension, I would go to a location away from any civilization and set barriers to prevent anyone interrupting us. I needed to do some research on barriers. After his power boost he would summon the ten most powerful souls available to him and give me their powers and memories. I would release him afterwards.

Why was I doing this? Out of despair. If I didn't, then the fox's power up would make the people uneasy about me and they would try to kill me. It wouldn't take long for the kyuubi to get out of Makai with his newfound power and he would be free to cause chaos everywhere, and I wouldn't be able to protect my loved ones. With this deal I at least have a small chance of surviving the extraction and defending my home from the fox itself if necessary.

The fox asked me why I was so set on killing myself. Truly, I'm not. I really wish to live a long and prosperous life. But the only thing that seemed to frighten the fox enough to strike a deal with me was threatening to send him to makai before it was convenient for him.

.-._.-._.

I woke up two days after the battle at the bridge, and by then the structure was almost complete. My team and I would be able to leave not even a week later. Once in the village we spent a few days doing D-Ranks and training, we were back to our usual routine. Until Kakashi informed us about being entered into the chuunin exams.

Things were very hectic for the following few of days. First was the nervousness of being entered into such a big event, knowing that our skills would be heavily tested. Then there was meeting those Suna shinobi. That redhead, Gaara, he gives me the creeps, I believe he also has a demon, but kyuubi wouldn't say anything. The first test of the exam was quite taxing. Not physically, but mentally. The proctor was a master of putting people on edge; I never thought a written exam would be so exhausting.

The second test was even worse. And their lives were at risk more than once. We had to survive an encounter with Orochimaru, the member of the Sannin who turned traitor. The kunoichi of our team, Sakura, had to fight against a team from Oto for quite a while before she was helped by Rock Lee, another Konoha Genin. Sasuke awoke a dark power given to him by Orochimaru and pounded the Oto team to the ground.

After that, things seemed to have calmed down; we were finally able to reach our goal and pass the test. But, immediately after that, we were thrown into a set of preliminary fights to see who got to fight in the final test; I had to fight Kiba Inuzuka.

I won, but I had never been so ashamed before that. If I'm honest, I won just because of luck. I might be seen as an idiotic braggart; I'm anything but, and I will be the first to admit that currently I'm weak. Even if I fought to my best abilities without worrying about what the people might do is they find out I'm not as weak as they believe, I'm still too weak for a shinobi.

We were given a month to prepare for the finals. I went and asked Kakashi for training, but he told me he would be training Sasuke. I was enraged at first; I needed as much, if not more, training as Sasuke. But then I remembered that the time for Kyuubi's power up was very near. It was for the best that Kakashi didn't train me then, I don't need to be under his watchful eye when shit hits the fan.

Right now I'm in a cave a couple of hundred miles away from the nearest village, which is quite far from Konoha. Normally Genin wouldn't be allowed out of the village unless it was for a mission. But with the Chuunin exam as a factor, it wasn't as suspicious if one of the participants went away to get some training. So I had no opposition on my way out. All in all, it took me 3 days to reach this cave, so it should take a Jounin at least one day to get here, quite a lot of time to do what I need to do.

I created a group of eight shadow clones and sent them to create a barrier. The barrier I found was created by Orochimaru himself for the research & development division of the village, in order to protect them from any unexpected reactions from their experiments. So it was quite resistant against jutsu, explosions and whatnot. It's called the Four Flames Barrier, but I thought, more is better so I modified it to be the Eight Flames Barrier, thus the eight clones.

I stood in the center of the cave and ordered a new clone to knock me out. I don't have the patience to meditate and this works just as well. I woke up in front of the fox's cage.

"**The time is near. I can feel the power building up"—**commented the fox, not even acknowledging the blond.

"Remember, they must be the strongest you can get, otherwise I won't consider your part as fulfilled"

"**As per our agreement, my part will never be fulfilled as long as you draw breath"**

"True, but you won't be free if you don't do your very best. You can go the rest of MY life without attacking my home village; after I die it won't be my problem"

"**Such selfish human"**

"We, humans, are selfish, and with the crap I have been put through, I believe I have earned the right to be selfish."—At that moment, the Kyuubi started to glow and eerie red.

"**It's time, I shall reign supreme!"**

The energy wave was felt everywhere throughout the nations and every village was put on edge. In Konoha, underground, a man covered in bandages who had been enjoying a cup of tea, saw how the cup broke while in his hand. Things were about to become…troublesome.

.-._.-._.

**(1) This is true, in the manga there was NEVER a mention of the villagers attacking Naruto physically. That trend started here in fan fiction as a tool to push for certain outcomes, but in cannon Naruto was never physically mistreated; just verbally, and in whispers at that. The mistreatment of Naruto was that people of the village actually went out of their way to IGNORE him, not abuse him.**

**(2)This is true too. Those who really pay attention to the manga and don't exaggerate things will notice that Naruto's healing, though fast, isn't immediate. Wounds take less to heal, but it's still not instant.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Still not out of my author's block so here is another chap of this lousy written story.**

**.-._.-._.**

Ch. 1: The power of ten.

As the light receded, Naruto was able to see the fox once again. It had changed. Its fur became black instead of the fiery red it was before, except for the border of its eyes where its fur turned silver. The eyes of the fox were no longer the same either; rather than the slit red eyes from before, they were now ringed and purple with several coma-like spots lying around the center. Naruto noticed too, that it had gained an extra tail, which was the only unsurprising change.

"Well then, congratulations are in order, I suppose. I fulfilled half of my bargain by letting you become the Juubi, now it's time you fulfill half of your part"—Said Naruto after a while.

"**Insolent human, you stand before the demon king. I will do my part alright, but you shall show respect!"**—growled the newly crowned Juubi.

"Yeah, yeah. Just do it already, you overgrown hare"

"**Grrr…whatever. I will just summon the ten souls and be done with it****"**—and with that said, the fox took a deep breath and spat a stream of fire out of the cage. The fire soon turned from orange to white and divided in ten flames, which started to take human shape of different sizes.

The first flame took the form of a man wearing blue jeans, a black T-shirt and a leather jacket. He had strong facial features and short brown untamed hair. He looked a bit disoriented, but somehow not surprised at all. He was feeling his neck as if to confirm it was still there, Naruto deduced that he probably died of beheading, and judging by the claymore sword he had it was probably in battle, good.

The second also had the appearance of a civilian. He had an air of confidence to himself, as if he didn't care what was going on and knew that in the end everything would be fine for him. He had slick black hair and a sharp face, Naruto could distinguish the slight shade of a shaved beard. The man was just looking around in fascination.

The third flame became a tall man with long blond hair. He had his eyes closed so Naruto couldn't make anything out of them, however the face of the man seemed troubled and, if Naruto was right, surprised; this man didn't know he was dead. He was wearing a golden armor and a white cape, meaning he was a warrior, if a flashy one, but a warrior still.

The fourth turned out to be a short old man with an odd egg shaped head. He was bald and seemed easy going. He didn't seem surprised or troubled at all by what was going on. He also had an aura of danger surrounding him.

The fifth flame formed into a tall teenager who was heavily disoriented, and somewhat freaked out. He had white hair and a black skin thigh suit.

The sixth was the only woman of the group. Naruto, however, couldn't make out if she had any reaction at all because of the gas mask she was wearing. She was dressed in all black and her suit had several medical appliances, like surgical scissors or scalpels. Though she had a blood stained machete on her hand so she was also dangerous.

The seventh was a slender and tall man who was covered from head to toe with a blue and orange skin thigh suit and a weird white helmet. He had a katana with him and seemed to only be looking around him as if to know the place, but not surprised at all.

The eight was another katana wielding man. He also had a skin thigh suit, red and grey. He had short dark brown hair and a red blindfold covering his eyes. His reaction was quite unexpected though. He wasn't surprised, disoriented or indifferent like the others; he was angry and seemed to just be waiting for someone to make a wrong move so he could lash out at someone freely.

The ninth was a creepy man who seemed homeless. He had a dirty hooded raincoat with a glowing chest armor under it. His eyes seemed to be glowing with a blue hue and his teeth were ruined. He was part of the unsurprised ones, just curious.

The tenth and last one was a tall bulky man with a hoody jacket covering most of his features. He was surprised, but understanding seemed to dawn and he became just curious about his surroundings.

The white haired teen was the first to lose his patience.

"Where the fuck are we! Who are this people? And how did we get here?"—He lashed out at no one and everyone. Surprisingly it was the second man who answered.

"We are inside the mind of this child"—he said pointing at Naruto—"We are all people who somehow lost contact with the living plane. Some of us are dead, some are not and simply are here temporarily"—Naruto and Juubi were surprised by this revelation.—"We were brought here by that demon in that cage. I'm not sure why, but I'm willing to bet that it was because of our singular skills"

"How do you know that?"—asked Naruto, he was both troubled by this man and exited that he would get his uncanny intellect.

"You can call me Sylar. I know this because I have the ability of understanding; intuitive aptitude is what some call it."

"So, not all of us are dead?"—asked the armored blond man.

"No"—was Sylar's answer, he then looked at the man intently and then continued—"in your case, your consciousness is only away from your body. You're having what people call an extracorporeal experience"—the blond warrior nodded and seemed relieved.

"And me?"—rashly asked the white haired teenager. Sylar looked at him and answered after a short time.

"You lost contact with your reality, you're not dead, but you will have a hard time getting back to your own dimension. You will probably end up somewhere else. You broke the dimensional barriers by running way too fast. You were transported her while you were in between two different dimensions so that was going to happen anyway"

"Why are we here anyway"—asked the first man, speaking for the first time. He had a funny accent, but other than that he spoke the language perfectly.

"**I brought you here because I made a deal with the child. In exchange of my freedom I will give him all of your powers. You're the most powerful ****humans of your respective dimensions that died, or rather lost contact with the living real****m****, at the moment of the summoning****"**—answered the Juubi.

"First I want to know about them"—said Naruto—"Sylar-san already introduced himself, but what about the others?"

"Well…I'm Connor MacLeod. I was an immortal, though I gave up my life to make a fellow clansman powerful enough to kill a mutual enemy. I might not look it, but I'm actually 484 year old"—the first man introduced himself, leaving others speechless.

"My name is Asmita, I'm a Gold Saint of the goddess Athena and represent the constellation of Virgo"—the armored blond warrior said.

"Well"—started the old man—"I suppose I died of old age, it's not like it was unexpected anyway. My name is Maha Zoldyck. I was the head of the Zoldyck family of assassins"

"Tch…Pietro Lehnsherr, though most call me Quicksilver. I'm a mutant with super human speed, I can both run and think faster than normal humans"—continued the white haired youth.

"That explains your impatience"—commented Maha.

"Michaela Heinzwaffen"—said the masked woman with a thick accent—"Field medic and torture specialist of the Umbrella Security Service team Wolfpack. Probably killed by that horde of infected I was fighting off"

"My name is Frank Jaeger, codename Grey Fox"—Juubi smirked at that—"I'm an assassin and died fighting a giant war machine called Metal Gear REX, I just hope I did enough to allow my companion to exterminate it"

"Kenshi"—growled the blindfolded man—"I'm a fighter of Earthrealm, I died during an extensive war against the forces that wished to control or destroy Earthrealm. I was only bested in battle by the joint effort of two powerful sorcerers"—he said this as if to justify that he wouldn't have ded in any other scenario.

"Name is Cole MacGrath, but I haven't used that name in a while so please call me Kessler"—said the creepy homeless man—"I have control over electricity in any way or form, and can use it for many purposes, one of which is time travel. I actually orchestrated my own death by going to the past and allowing my past self to kill me and control the outcome of certain events to hopefully change the future."

"I have no name, many call me Blacklight. I'm a virus who took over the body and identity of the Dr. Alexander Mercer. I actually thought I was him until just recently. In my universe Mercer practically unleashed apocalypse and I had to move an active bomb away from the city I live in. Right now my boyd and consciousness is probably scattered around. It won't be long before I reform myself so you better do this quick"

"Cool! All of you seem to have something to offer, great. Very well fox, give me their memories now"—All of the presents seemed alarmed by that.

"Wait! You're going to take our memories?"—asked Pietro alarmed.

"**I'm only going to make copies of your minds and give them to the brat. You will retain your memories"—**replied the Juubi. The fox then took another deep brat and spat a new stream of fire to the summoned souls. Everyone tried to move away but found their bodies to be against them when they didn't move an inch. The fire covered them all and soon the orange fire turned blue. Juubi stopped the stream but the flames still covered the individuals. After a while the blue flames, one by one flew towards Naruto. When the fire extinguished Naruto stood there completely frozen for a while, before he started screaming and holding his head in pain.

Everyone was transfixed on the kid as he trembled painfully on the floor of his own mind. After a short while, Naruto stood up unsteadily and panting.

"That…that was very messed up. All your realities…kami, all your worlds are crazy as hell. Witnessing them all like that, it was surreal."

"**You should have considered that when you asked me for that, brat"—**said Juubi with a shit eating grin—**"Now, I believe it's time I give you their powers"—**the fox said this as he prepared to launch another stream of fire.

"No, stop"—said Naruto—"I will not want all their powers. Some of them already have given me what they could with their memories"—he pointed to his head—"like Connor or Michaela. Even if you give me their genetics I won't be immortal like Connor because his immortality came from an external source, and Michaela is just a normal human with lots of experience in the battlefield. Asmita's power could be of use, but I believe that Maha's power will be more useful since this Nen technique he uses is more flexible than the Cosmos that Asmita uses, whatever I can do with Asmita's power I will be able to do in the long run with Maha's. And Frank is also a normal human, he was modified, but his genes are still normal, I can get my body to be like his with the Balcklight virus' properties. So I think we can let Connor, Michaela, Asmita and Frank go on already. In exchange for not getting four of the ten we agreed on I will ask you to lock my chakra away."—the fox growled at being given yet another stipulation, but it wasn't anything he couldn't do and it was pretty easy too so he said nothing about that—"that way it will be harder for my enemies to put me under genjutsu or sense me as easily."

"**Alright, brat. ****But that better be the last change you make to our agreement, and you better set me free afterwards!****"****—**not giving him a chance to answer, the fox spat a third stream of fire that once again changed color, this time to purple and, like with the memories, one by one the six flames shot towards Naruto in quick succession.

While the purple flames consumed and changed Naruto, the fox set to lock the blonde's chakra away as per his request. After that it was just a matter of waiting for the flames to finish their job. Juubi then decided that the souls of the present needed not be there anymore and set them on their merry way back to their dimensions; they had fulfilled their purpose already so it was of no use holding them there any longer. Besides, some of them needed to go back to living; it came as quite a surprise when that Sylar guy revealed that not all of them were actually dead. It seemed that the Juubi still needed to understand its own powers better.

The fire covering Naruto subsided and revealed the blond kneeling in exhaustion. He was for the most part still the same, except his muscles were more noticeable and he was bulkier for it. When he wobbly stood up the Juubi notices that Naruto looked taller too, if just a bit.

"Damn, that was taxing. Why am I tired?"—asked Naruto, his voice was a little bit deeper, but still recognizable.

"**Your body used a lot of energy to perform the changes**** at such a fast rate; the fact that you had me lock away your chakra didn't help either. After you free me you will be even more tired and you will probably need to eat a whole herd of cattle just to restore energy****"****—**commented the fox amused by this, any pain Naruto suffered was quite enjoyable to witness for the demon—**"However, none of that matters. I fulfilled my end of the bargain. Now, release me."**

Naruto shot the fox a look as if to say 'are you serious?' but sighed and advanced towards the cage anyway. As he prepared to take away the seal a hand stopped him from taking the tag away. The Juubi growled menacingly and Naruto looked behind him with narrowed eyes, only to find the Yondaime Hokage there.

"I don't know what would push you to release the seal, Naruto, but I'm not going to allow you to…"—he was cut short by several tendrils of biomass, coming from Naruto's body, trapping him and pulling him towards Naruto. The Hokage tried to get free, but the tendrils had him immobile and in no time he had been consumed by the blond.

Naruto remained quiet for a while, sorting through the new knowledge he gained from consuming the Yondaime, his father. The combination of the Blacklight virus with Pietro's accelerated thinking meant that he could sort through the mind of those he consumed faster and more thoroughly. He had gained all of the man's knowledge in an instant, instead of the partial knowledge that Alex gained from his consumptions.

Naruto was angry at the Hokage, both the current one and the one he just consumed. His father had been the one to put him in such a situation, was he and idiot? Did he really believe that the village would treat him like a hero? Judging by his new knowledge, the man indeed was that blind. And Hiruzen, that man had hidden his heritage from him. Naruto would need to have some words with the ancient man when he next met him.

The blond shook out of his stupor and finally got back to his previous task. He took the seal tag and like one does with a band aid, tore it away from the cage quickly. The gates exploded outwardly and the fox was released.

.-._.-._.

In the cave where Naruto resided at the moment, the barrier the clones were keeping up was tore down by the huge release of chakra, caused by the Juubi's newfound freedom. All the clones were destroyed in the aftermath and Naruto's body exploded. The Juubi looked around, marveling in it freedom.

"**Finally I'm free"** **–**it said wistfully—**"thank you for fulfilling your bargain, brat"—**the fox the turned to look at Naruto and was somewhat saddened that he only found a black smear on the cave's floor—**"Not even all of that power was able to save you then. It's not surprising, I never thought you would survive, but I hoped. You might have been annoying, but it was fun meeting you, I will respect my end of the bargain and not attack Konoha, at least for a few decades. Rest in peace, Naruto"**—and with that, the fox left the cave, never looking back. Thus he didn't notice when the black mass smeared on the ground started gathering together and reforming the body of Naruto.

.-._.-._.

**Well, that's that. I will see if I can write something for Werefox now, or if I still have author's block****.**


	3. Chapter 3

**F**KING AUTHOR'S BLOCK! I want to write something for Werefox. Dammit! I'm almost free of it, I can feel it, but it's not quite enough yet, damn!**

.-._.-._.

Ch. 2: The next step.

The blond woke up quite drained, hours after the Juubi had left. He looked around and groaned as his body protested against the movement. There was no sign of the demon anywhere. Naruto sighed, he at least wanted to say goodbye to the fox before they went on their separate ways. The fur ball was annoying, but Naruto would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy the last month of bickering with the beast.

After a while he shook those thoughts from his mind and decided to move away. Judging by the sun, he would say it had been around 17 hours since he arrived to the cave; it wouldn't be long before shinobi started arriving to the cave to investigate what the chakra wave had been all about. Naruto needed to start moving.

He ignored his body's protests and stood up. First, he needed to find food, so his priority should be finding the nearest village. That was approximately 200 miles away, half a day at Jounin speed. Thank you, Pietro. And on that note, Naruto took off towards said place. It took him about 2 and a half hours to reach it, and by then he was even more famished.

Since he didn't have any money, he just stole what food he found. Several fruits from different vendors and an old looking cow from a local farmer. Seeing how there were several younger ones in the herd; he guessed the farmer wouldn't miss the animal. If he did, well, though luck. Juubi was right, it wasn't enough. But at least he was feeling somewhat better now that he had some food in his stomach.

He decided it would be better to find some shelter for the night. He really needed to rest, and plan his next course of action. He could go back to the village, now that he had done what he needed outside. But he thought that it would be a waste of his temporary freedom granted by the chuunin exams.

He had a clear advantage over all the other participants. He had the blacklight virus which he could use to get knowledge from other shinobi he consumed, and in case they had bloodlines he could understand them way better than the original user, thanks to Sylar's intuitive aptitude, and use them himself. It would be a great waste not to explode any of that.

He also needed to get used to Nen. He had Maha's memories of using it, so he already knew how to use the Enhancer aura. Naruto, however, still needed to figure out what his own type of aura was and learn how to use it. Thanks to Maha's memories he also had several ideas of how he could use each and every type of aura. Naruto wondered if consuming people using his blacklight virus powers would have any effect on his aura; if it had any he hoped it wasn't something bad.

He settled for spending the night in the barn of the same farm he took the cow from. He knew that shinobi would be tracking down whoever had been in the cave and even if he took a bath to get rid of any smell, he expected the cattle stench to be some extra assurance to prevent detection. That night he performed the Water Divination with some stuff he found in the barn, he had to bit his fist to prevent his laughter being heard by anyone after he found out what kind of effect his powers had on his aura. He decided after that, that he wouldn't go back to Konoha just yet; his time would be better spent by training and hunting down nuke-nin to become more powerful.

As it turns out, shinobi from Konoha had indeed been sent to investigate the previous day's phenomenon. Naruto decided to hide in plain sight by transforming into Maha. Since it was not a chakra Henge, there was no reason for the shinobi to detect it. It worked and he was able to leave town without any of the shinobi noticing his presence at all. It had been a good idea to ask the Juubi to lock his chakra away.

Naruto spent the following couple of weeks training to perfect his Nen abilities and hunting down nuke-nin to consume them. Unfortunately for him, he was only able to find the stupid ones who remained in clear view, so he didn't do much consuming and contented himself with getting their bounties, which weren't that big either. At least during the battles he had gotten to witness several jutsu he might be able to replicate with his Nen.

He also spent some time making plans for his future. Once his abilities were revealed he might decide to start a clan of his own. He would separate himself completely from the Namikaze name, even if Hiruzen did reveal his lineage, he would never take the name of the man who was responsible for his suffering. But if he started a clan, he might need servants, maybe even enforcers to maintain order within his clan, and carry out the dirty work that needed to be done in the shadows. Danzou might be a ruthless bastard, but Naruto thought the man had some right ideas about preventing anarchy; the man was willing to stain his hands as long as order and peace for the village was kept. Though Naruto would never agree that attacking unprovoked was the same a preventive strike. (1)

When he thought of this, Kenshi's memories rose above the others, and he remembered Shao Kahn. The man was a villain, but he had the right idea in that he didn't trust anyone. He kept Shang Tsung around because it was better to have him where he could watch him than having him away and plotting. But to carry out his will he only trusted his enforcers, created by himself. Ermac and Mileena as prime examples. Though Kenshi freed Ermac and thus Shao Kahn lost one enforcer. That aside, having soldiers loyal to him that would maintain order in his turf was quite the appealing idea. Those plans, however, would need to wait. It was no use planning for something he was still deciding on. (2)

And so, planning, training and hunting, the month he was given to prepare was at its end, and he would need to go back to Konoha. He would be surprised by what he would find there.

.-._.-._.

When he arrived, he went straight to the Hokage's tower. He noticed on the way, that he was receiving some strange calculating stares from some shinobi, and some even weirder from the civilians, as if they were somewhat apprehensive. It dawned on him that somehow, information about his hunting had leaked out. Great, now he would probably have to endure a sermon from the old man.

He was right. As soon as he entered the old man's office he was bombarded with questions about his whereabouts for the last month, what had he been thinking when he went out of the village, blah blah blah. The old man, however, asked more about the incident at the beginning of the month. Naruto decided to have a bit of fun on the man for hiding his heritage from him, and so explained everything. How the Kyuubi was now a free demon king of ten tails instead of just nine, as well as what that implied. The man almost had a stroke. Then there was more blah blah blah, about how irresponsible it was of him to let free such a menace.

Naruto ignored most of it, letting the man lash out however much he wanted. When the man asked why he had done such a thing, however, Naruto remained silent for a while. Hiruzen had been about to ask more forcefully when Naruto answered.

"I let the Juubi free, because as soon as the village notices that it is causing chaos somewhere else, they will have no other option other than admit they were wrong about me. I let the Juubi free, because if I didn't, the village would have me dead as soon as possible. I let the Juubi free, because in exchange, it gave me the means to survive such an outcome and protect the village more effectively. As you obviously know, I'm more than capable of taking down most low jounin shinobi, this is thanks to Juubi"—the Hokage seemed disturbed by Naurto's attitude, where was the happy-go-lucky child he remembered?

"What did it offer you?"—asked the Hokage instead.

"Nothing, I actually blackmailed it to give me what I wanted"—that took the Hokage by surprise.

"Wh…what?"

"You heard me, old man, I blackmailed it. Made it give me what I wanted and promise not to attack any place I call home, then I set it free."—Sarutobi narrowed his eyes.

"How do you know it won't break that promise? We are talking about a demon here, Naruto"

"Exactly, and demons can't break their oats."

"How are you so sure? You got that information from the demon itself; of course it would tell you that so you trusted it!"—Naruto just shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

"It doesn't really matter. Juubi gave what I wanted most of everything. If it broke its promise I'm confident that I can use the powers granted to me to keep it at bay."—the Hokage sighed in defeat and let the matter drop, there was nothing he could actually do now, other than take preventive measures.

"What powers did it give you?"—asked the old man, Naruto gained a feral smirk.

"I guess, you will just have to find out tomorrow during the tournament, won't you?"—and with that, Naruto used Pietro's speed along with Maha's enhancer aura to disappear at a speed faster than what the Hokage could keep up with. The old man was frozen on the spot and cold sweat ran down his spine. Before he could gain his wits, he promptly fainted.

.-._.-._.

**Seriously, I don't know why people paint Danzou as 'evil' here in fanfiction. The man is a ruthless asshole, I agree with that. But his ideas were pretty fitting for the context of the story. This is supposed to be a manga about**** ninja, which means assassins, thieves, saboteurs, spies, ****soldiers****. The world in the Naruto-verse is constantly at the brink of war. Danzou, in my opinion, has the right mentality, though his methods are a tad questionable.**

**I didn't mention Skarlet because**** I'm using Kenshi from the original timeline, where he died in the Battle of Armageddon. I would have used Kenshi from the alternate timeline, but it was never confirmed if he died there too, and I like to keep crossoever characters as close to canon as po****ssible, it's too troublesome otherwise to create and keep up with an alternate background for the crossover character as well as the fan fic core story.**


	4. you will want to read this

**Summer! Finals are over and I didn't suspend any subject. I also have more free time now since I'm not working, so I will probably get more chapters out this summer than I did last year.**

**For now though, I must focus on rewriting chapter 24 of Shinobi Bender. I have not done it because of school and all that mess caused by fanfiction staff about taking stories down and all that crap; I was waiting for it to cool down before I decided to continue.**

**So, yeah, this summer will be spent relaxing and writing, maybe going to the gym a couple of hours a day just to remain somewhat active (I would have preferred going to some beach, but weather is being a bitch).**

**However, just in case I hit an author's block I will want to get out of it as soon as possible, so I will turn to this story if that happens. But as you know, I'm not putting much effort in this story, so I don't want to think much about certain aspects of it. One such aspect is Naruto's Nen abilities, which is where you, my readers, come in.**

**You see, I left everything to luck when it came to deciding what kind of Nen user Naruto would be; meaning I threw a dice. So, by luck's command, Naruto has 4 types of Nen auras right off the bat. Which, as per dictator VonDice's orders, are Emitter, Enhancer, Transmuter and Conjurer. Naruto can use any of those 4 types at 100 percent each, and he can use Manipulator at 80 percent of its capacity. He CANNOT use Specialization (That was decided by a coin).**

**The point is that I don't want to think about what kind of abilities Naruto has. It's too big a hassle to be bothered with when I'm more interested in continuing my other stories. So please send suggestions about Nen abilities that Naruto can have (based on his Nen types), I will then put up a poll with the ideas I find more interesting and let you decide.**

**There is just one restriction about all this. NOTHING INVOLVING FOXES!**


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm kind of sad right now. I have nothing to read and no time to write a chapter for my other stories, since it takes more time to write a chapter for a story I'm actually taking seriously. I really want to write something so I decided that a chapter for this story was better than nothing.**

.-._.-._.

Ch. 3.: The Invasion.

Naruto stood in the middle of the arena that was to host the tournament of the chuunin exams. The proctor of the exam was a few feet away from him. In front of him was his opponent, Hyuuga Neji.

The stadium was bustling with whispers and snide remarks about the blond. All around people were betting on how long it would take for the Hyuga prodigy to beat him. Amongst them, a nen construct of Maha, made the only bet that Naruto would win.

Up in the Kage's booth the Hokage was looking at Naruto inquisitively. Since his return, Naruto had been under surveillance. The Hokage no longer trusted him, but then again, when had he really trusted Naruto? He was brought out of his musings by his opponent's annoying voice.

"You should give up now, fate has determined me as the winner."—said Neji. Naruto just looked at him impassively.

"Is that what you will say to your enemies in the actual battlefield? If so then you will be the laughing stock of the entire continent, I fear. Now, if you don't mind, shut your trap and let's fight, people didn't come here to watch a wannabe emo talk about fate."—Neji growled at this and the proctor decided it was high time he started this match.

"Begin!"

Neji, angry at Naruto's comment, activated his Byakugan and prepared to launch himself against Naruto. However, after activating his bloodline his eyes widened in surprise, for he couldn't see Naruto with them. Naruto smirked smugly.

"Is there a problem, Neji? You seem…surprised"—Naruto chuckled mirthfully and people all around the stadium started wondering what he was on about.

"You…why can't I see you!?"—he shouted and the audience was shocked into silence—"how are you countering my eyes? My eyes can see everything, why can't I see you?"—Naruto openly laughed at that.

"Now, if that isn't contradicting yourself. Why should I tell you, Neji? I mean, it's not like a ninja to reveal his, or her, secrets. But let's stop postponing the spectacle these people came to watch."

He then launched several lightning bolts to Neji, who dodged and deactivated his bloodline. With Naruto, somehow able to counter it, it was no use wasting chakra. As soon as he moved, Naruto launched an Arc Lightning that hit Neji squarely on the chest and sent him stumbling backwards. The Hyuuga grunted painfully but recovered fast and went to attack Naruto up close.

"You want this to be a taijutsu match? Alright then, no problem"—and with that he activated Kessler's Gigawatt Blades, stunning every onlooker once again. The blond slashed with his now ignited hands, forcing Neji to step back—"Come on! You are the one who wanted a close up match, didn't you?"—this time, it was Naruto who initiated the assault, but as Neji kept dodging, the blond decided to up his speed.

After a while he stopped and deactivated the blades. Neji for his part was a bleeding and convulsing mess. Every slash Naruto made sent a wave of electricity through his body provoking reactions of his nervous system and muscles. Right now Neji couldn't properly control his body and his wounds were weakening him gradually

"Will you give up now, fate's bitch?"—asked Naruto condescendingly.

"You…pant…are a loser…pant…You will always be…pant… a loser, you can't…pant… change your fate! I will win this match…pant…fate has deemed it so!"—Neji then tried to advance towards Naruto but as soon as he gave the first step he found himself lifted in the air by an unseen force holding his arms and legs.

"As you wish"—said Naruto who had both of his arms extended in front of him and his eyes closed. He slowly started to move his arms as if he was trying to separate something invisible. Soon enough Neji started so feel the unseen force stretching his arms and legs in opposite directions as if it was in synchrony with the blonde's actions.

The Hyuuga realized what Naruto was doing and panicked. He tried to give up the match, but at that moment he yelled out in pain from being stretched too far—"I gave you the opportunity to give up before. I no longer give second chances. Good riddance."—and with that he made a final movement, extending his arms to his sides. In front of everyone present, Neji was literally torn apart. (1)

Everyone was silent at the sadistic performance of the blond, even the proctor—"Will I have to shock you into declaring me the winner, or will you do it on your own?"—Naruto asked. The proctor absently declared him the winner, still staring at what remained of Neji. Naruto shrugged his shoulders and walked up to the participants' booth.

Once there, every other participant stared at him in fright, except Gaara who had a maniacal look on his eyes and was staring at him like a juicy steak. Naruto decided to have fun with him and, using his own nen, sent him an illusion that depicted Naruto as the devil impersonated, where he stood over the other jinchuriki's torn and bloody remains. The redhead looked away and started sweating. Naruto smirked and headed for the rail to watch the next match, which just so happened to be between Gaara against the only person Naruto still considered a friend; Sasuke. (2)

Sasuke, however, hadn't arrived yet, most likely due to Kakashi. And since some politicians wanted to watch his fight, regardless of his lateness, his match was moved to happen at the end of the first round. So it was Shino against makeup boy, who forfeited the match immediately. Damn, he wasn't getting any entertainment at all. Shikamaru was about to forfeit as well, but Naruto decided that he wasn't going to be bored while waiting for Sasuke to appear, so he pushed the lazy ass to the arena.

The fight wasn't impressive at all, but it was enlightening. Shikamaru had practically won the match with one single jutsu and his ingenuity. Using Sylar's power he analyzed the jutsu, and the blond was confident that he would be able to replicate it with his Nen. If only Shikamaru hadn't given up, oh well. At the end of the match, Sasuke and Kakashi made their appearance. Naruto didn't even bother to roll his eyes.

After pleasantries were taken care of, Kakashi left Sasuke in the arena, and Gaara walked down to meet his opponent. Naruto noticed that Gaara was once again sporting his crazed look. He narrowed his eyes, if things got out of control he might need to put the redhead down like the rabid dog he seemingly was. He had made the deal with Juubi in order to protect Konoha better, he will be damned if he didn't do exactly that. (3)

"You better win, bastard!"—shouted Naruto to his teammate, who turned around to look at him—"I want to kick your ass in the finals."—Sasuke just smirked and nodded before turning his attention to his opponent.

"Alright, the last match of the first round will now commence, if both participants are ready. Begin!"

The match, to Naruto, was quite educative, to say the least. It was clear that Sasuke was at disadvantage though. He was unable to bypass Gaara's defense at all. He had obviously worked on his speed in hopes to exploit the weakness revealed by Rock Lee in the semifinals, but speed like Lee's wasn't acquired in just a month. Taijutsu was obviously out of the question, close combat against the redhead was suicide. So, if Sasuke was to win, he had to use either Genjutsu or Ninjutsu strong enough to bring down Gaara's defense.

After a while Gaara became crazed and created a cocoon of sand around him. Sasuke tried to attack it but he had to stop his attack, lest he became a pincushion. So, with Gaara inside the sphere, doing kami knows what, and Sasuke unable to get past the sand, they came to a stalemate.

Sasuke then decided to use a new technique, which looked like a stronger and more focused version of Kessler's Gigawatt Blades. However, though it was indeed a strong technique, it had several setbacks that Naruto noticed with Sylar's Intuitive Aptitude, namely the inability to change course once the user was in movement and the fact that without a doujutsu the user was a sitting duck for anyone other than the target of the attack. It was thus easy to dodge and counterattack for any non-immobilized person. Gaara, however, was a perfect target at the moment.

After Sasuke rammed his hand into the sand cocoon, a terrified scream came from within, clearly Gaara had been wounded. After that, things seemed to go down to hell. A genjutsu was placed on the entire stadium to make people fall asleep. Naruto of course was unaffected since he no longer had chakra to feed the illusion. Then an explosion ignited from the Kage's booth and chaos ensued. An invasion had just started.

Naruto smirked, this was the perfect opportunity to consume several enemies and further expand his abilities, maybe one or two bloodline users too. Using Pietro's speed and enhancing it with Maha's Nen, just as he did in the Hokage's office the previous day, he disappeared from view and not two seconds later all the non-Konoha shinobi in the stadium were nothing more than bloody smears on the floor. At the same time above the arena appeared what seemed to bee and grotesque gigantic mass of body parts which was slowly becoming smaller; until there, instead of the mass of gore, stood Naruto, except that his arms had changed to be of a metal-like appearance and seemed to have buffed up a lot. He seemed to have a slight headache for a second before it subsided and he opened his eyes. Everyone who hadn't been affected by the genjutsu, or those who had been woken up, were staring at him in disbelief and horror.

"What are you lot looking at? We are being invaded! Move it!"—and with that he disappeared again. The jounin and chuunin quickly snapped out of their daze and instructed the genin on a course of action. Amongst the chaos, Gaara had been taken away by his siblings and Sasuke decided to follow them, willing himself to not think about what he had just witnessed a few seconds ago.

Naruto for his part was enjoying himself, making good use of his enhanced seed and strength, he was quickly tearing down the enemies without them being able to do anything about it, even a Kage would be hard pressed to keep up with his speed when he mixed the powers of Maha and Pietro, let alone a bunch of jounin and chuunin. When he realized it he had demolished a good half of the invading army and had to stop again to assimilate the exorbitant quantity of bodies and convert them to biomass. Konoha's shinobi, who were defending the east gate were engrossed by the sight of the humongous mass that was Naruto. When he finished consuming his prey he didn't even bother to address the staring shinobi and departed to finish off the other half of the army. (4)

.-._.-._.

**Stadium, a couple of minutes ago.**

Orochimaru stood perplexed at what had just happened. He had been confident that the Suna and Oto shinobi within the audience would be of use distracting the Konoha ninja, but that had gone to hell when all of them had been slaughtered in but a second by a genin of all things!

Without said distraction to keep them occupied, the ANBU had enough time to aid their Hokage before the barrier had been erected and now Orochimaru had to deal with the old man and at least a dozen of the aforementioned shinobi, not good. He decided to forego all the dramatics and warm up in order to get a better chance at surviving this confrontation, so he immediately summoned his secret weapon.

He needed to get out of the village soon, and determine how the jinchuriki had got the kind of power necessary to deal with a freaking army by himself in just a month, and if possible, harness said power.

.-._.-._.

Naruto arrived to the other side of the village just in time to see how a giant three headed snake was summoned to the battlefield. He couldn't keep the smirk put of his face; if there was something in this dimension that could trigger an evolution of his blacklight powers, it probably was consuming a summon. He lost no time and immediately jumped as high as he could, gathering biomass as he did, getting the attention of not only the summon, but most of the fighting shinobi as well.

Some of the shinobi took advantage of this and killed the distracted opponents; both sides snapped out of it and continued their fight, which was once again stopped when they saw what Naruto did.

As soon as he was in front of the snake, which had one of its maws open to devour him as he fell, Naruto let go of the biomass he gathered and released a devastator, as Alex called them. Tendrils of biomass sprouted out of his body and pierced the snake's body in several parts. He was unable to consume it however as it dispelled as soon as it was wounded. Naruto frowned in annoyance, but guessed he would have to deal with it. He then turned his attention to the remaining enemies, a predatory smirk adorning his face.

.-._.-._.

Orochimaru was desperately trying to find a way to get out of Konoha; things had gone terribly wrong. As soon as he had summoned the previous Hokages, except the fourth who Sarutobi prevented from being properly summoned, they had been engaged in combat by the ANBU. The surprising thing was that one of his experiments was part of the ANBU and he had confronted the first Hokage using wood against wood. Still he wasn't as skilled as the dead Hokage, but with the aid of the other ANBU they had subdue Hashirama, destroying the kunai that held him in this world. It wasn't long after that, Tobirama had been subdued as well, and now he was faced with the current Hokage and several ANBU.

_Stupid demon brat! This is his entire fault! __I should have killed him in the forest. _"It seems the odds are against me. I shall retreat for now sensei, but don't think for a second that this will be the last you hear of me"—with that the four shinobi holding the barrier flanked Orochimaru and escaped with him.

"Should we pursue Hokage-sama?"—asked the wood using ANBU.

"No, we have more important things to do. Get a report on the current situation! Confirm the status of everyone in the stadium, and send troops where it's needed."

"HAI!"—the Hokage sighed as he looked to the stadium, at least it seemed that here in the stadium there wasn't any casualty on Konoha's part. But he was worried by what he saw Naruto do. It was quite an impressive display of speed and power, no doubt the council would hear of this and cause trouble, he just hopped that he could keep the situation under control. Though maybe this was an opportunity to get hold of Naruto once again, he was obviously a force to be reckoned and since last month he had slipped out of his control, he no longer held him in high regards because he kept his inheritance a secret. If Naruto was to properly serve Konoha the way he was meant to, then Sarutobi needed him under his control.(5)

"Hokage-sama"—said the ANBU captain when he arrived a while after.

"Report!"—ordered Iruzen.

"Hai. The situation is under control now. There wasn't much material damage done to the village and our losses are minimal while the invading army has been completely obliterated. Civilians were evacuated as soon as the invasion started; they are safe within the mountain. It's impossible to get an exact account of the enemy forces since most of the bodies were completely destroyed according to the reports. Only a few on the western gate were recuperated. However reports say that a confrontation between Uchiha Sasuke and Suna's jinchuriki is still in process, Jounin and Chuunin have already been deployed to assist the genin."

"Hmm…Suna has been weakened, but they are still not a force to be trifled with, how come they were defeated so easily?"

"Oddly, sir, both reports affirm that Uzumaki Naruto made an appearance and he was who decimated the army, many of our shinobi were unable to handle the sheer brutality displayed by genin Uzumaki, they were transferred to the hospital"—the Hokage internally cursed, if the reports were true then Naruto was becoming too powerful too quickly. He needed to be contained and controlled soon.

.-._.-._.

Naruto soon learnt of the confrontation between his teammate and the rabid dog that was Gaara. He frowned and sped away to assist his friend. He arrived to the location of the fight just in time to destroy the bindings holding and slowly killing Sakura. He saw that Sasuke was on his last leg and decided to interfere before he killed himself.

"Hey mut!"—Naruto shouted—"Why don't you try me next?"—and not giving the shukaku time to answer, Naruto disappeared in a burst of speed. The next thing the demon knew was that he was sent flying a good distance by Naruto's fist. He turned around to Sasuke then—"Are you alright, bastard?"

"Just perfect, dobe"—answered Sasuke, barely able to do so—"but we should retreat, he is on a whole different level than us"

"Jounin and chuunin are on their way, we only need to hold him until they arrive. But of course, I don't plan on taking that long."

"Hmm…and what can you do?"—the Uchiha asked faintly.

"Heh, I have something you don't, bastard."—said Naruto as he armored himself with biomass and transformed his arm into its blade form. Sasuke was left speechless by the sight.—"Now, you overgrown rat"—said Naruto turning to the Shukaku—"Entertain me."

.-._.-._.

**(1) If you didn't notice, I hate Neji. So yeah, he's dead now. And yes, this is a deterrent for anyone who wants this to be NaruHina, if I ever decide on a pairing it will definitely not be the stalker.**

**(2) At this point in time, Sasuke hasn't done really anything against Naruto. The guy in fact has proved that he appreciates Naruto's friendship when he put himself between Naruto and Haku's needles, regardless of his own safety. And when he believed he was really dying, the only thing he asked of Naruto was to live, not to kill Itachi like a few fics I have read say. All that stuff about him being an asshole, being obsessed with getting the power of others and other stuff is just a tool used here in fanfiction to trigger certain outcomes. The truth is that Sasuke has no interest whatsoever about his rank, the power of others and other such stuff. The only reason he even pays attention to other people's skill is when he is trying to measure his own strength, and the reason he resents Naruto after the invasion is because at first he was weaker than Sasuke and after the invasion Sasuke learnt that Naruto had become stronger than him, which to him meant that he wasn't advancing while Naruto was. A fact that, in his frustration and because of Kakashi's well-intended but not well thought words, he interpreted as the village holding him back, which is why he ran away.**

**(3) I do NOT hate Gaara, he is actually one of my favorite characters. But this story has a mind of its own. I'm just letting my imagination go wild without any sort of control at all.**

**(4) God-like Naruto? I couldn't possibly care less. The blacklight virus practically made him a god by itself; add in the enhanced speed and intellect, psychic powers as well as the power to enhance all his skill even more with nen, he is a freaking god in human skin.**

**(5****) Yes, I made Iruzen ****a manipulative bastard, but just like Danzo he is supposed to be the leader of ****a militarized village, he SHOULD**** be ruthless and I find it quite unfitting for the context of the Naruto-verse that he is actually the softy he is portrayed to be****, so here he is only hiding behind a grandfather façade**** (****Sounds like someone else.**** I ****probably ****should stop comparing Naruto with Harry Potter****. With so many parallels that's difficult to avoid.****)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Just to let you know. If I'm updating this story right now, it's just to prevent myself from having a mental breakdown. I'm under a lot of pressure from college and it's taking its toll on me. I just need a breather, and that's this story's main purpose.**

**I don't have that much free time right now so I have not been able to update the other stories, even though I have wanted to do it more than once. This chapter took me about 1 hour, give or take a few minutes, so don't expect much from it. **

**What I'm trying to say is that even though I'm updating this, it doesn't mean I will update my other stories any time soon; I still have another two weeks before winter break and those two weeks are going to be hell. I will probably spend the two or three days afterwards just sleeping and with my brain turned off. So don't expect anything for at least that much time.**

.-._.-._.

Ch. 4: Conclusion.

If there is one thing that can be said about Sasuke right now, it's that he is feeling completely and utterly frustrated. Here he is, Uchiha Rookie of the year of Konoha, lying on the ground completely exhausted, a few yards away from the titanic confrontation going on at the moment between the Ichibi no Shukaku and his own teammate, the supposedly dead last of the current generation, who was practically manhandling the gigantic beast all on his own. When had the world turned upside down?

As soon as he witnessed Naruto's transformation, said blond had taken off towards the sand monster and Sasuke thought he was crazy. Even if by some miracle Naruto had become stronger, there was no way that in merely one month he had gained the power to keep a Bijuu at bay, let alone defeat it. But right there, happening in front of him, was the proof of the opposite.

Naruto was not only keeping the beast at bay. He actually had the upper hand from the very beginning! As soon as the blond was within range, he had jumped and climbed up the raccoon's body with dexterity never seen before by the last Uchiha. What's more, the beast was powerless to prevent him from reaching its head, not by lack of trying mind you. After reaching the tanuki's head, the young genin had somehow delivered an uppercut to the demon's chin, which was actually strong enough to lift it a couple of feet!

Where had Naruto gotten that kind of physical strength? What kind of training had he gone through? And what's more, why was it that Kakashi, one of the supposedly stronger shinobi of Konoha, unable to get him to reach the same level?

The Uchiha's mussing was cut short when his teammate, again, did something flabbergasting. He had somehow jumped from the Ichibi's head with enough strength to reach a height twice the demon's. That in itself wasn't that strange to witness, Sasuke guessed that some shinobi could probably do that by channeling a lot of chakra to their legs. No, what was impressive was that after some kind of maneuver, which Sasuke couldn't see due to the distance, Naruto had descended at high speed and, with his arm turned blade, he cleaved, yes that's right, he cleaved the freaking bijuu in two! Like a hot knife does with butter I tell you, he cleaved it just that easily. He made it seem like an every fucking day thing! What in the seven circles was going on with the world!? Someone stop it and put it back to normal!

Well, however he had done that, it didn't matter at the moment. It obviously hadn't worked since the Shukaku reformed itself a mere two seconds after being cut in half, though it seemed pretty pissed off. Naruto, however, didn't seem fazed by this. Well, actually Sasuke wasn't so sure; he couldn't see that clearly from where he was lying and he certainly had not the energy to activate his Sharingan, and with Naruto's armor he supposed it wouldn't be of use anyway. Why was he digressing when a fight so big was going on right in front of him? Probably some side effect of a head injury or something, hopefully nothing too serious.

Back on track, Naruto seemed to change his arms, again. Sasuke couldn't see too clearly but the blonde's arms appeared to be bigger, bulkier and all around meaner. The stumbling of the Shukaku after Naruto punched it with his new arms was taken as confirmation of this. What came now was an outright beating from Naruto to the Ichibi, wrapped in red and with a ribbon on top. Yep, definitely a head injury, those Chuunin better arrive soon and take him to the hospital; he was starting to fear for his sanity.

He didn't have to wait that long, since just a few seconds after he thought this, said Chuunin, and some Jounin, arrived. Hopefully one of them would notice him on time. Hey, I'm here you idiots! Ugh, damn he was tired, he couldn't even voice out his thoughts.

It wasn't Sasuke's lucky day, it seems. As soon as they arrived to the site, the shinobi froze at the sight that welcomed them. Sasuke turned around to see what had them in such stupor. What? It's just Naruto beating the holly crap out of a bijuu. Well, if he was honest it looked more like Naruto punching a buddle of writing sand, but he was too tired by now to feel surprise, and he seriously needed to be checked by a medic. Scratch that, he had enough energy to feel surprise at what came next.

.-._.-._.

"NO! STAY AWAY! MY EXISTENCE WILL NOT BE ERASED!"—Gaara screamed in fear. Only he could hear the Shukaku yelling in unison with him.

"Hm, such a pitiful sight. What happened to the bloodthirsty dog from the finals? Weren't you going to feed Sasuke's and my blood to your mother?"—Naruto asked while he kept advancing towards the redhead.

"SHUT UP! GET AWAY! GET AWAY AND SHUT UP! YOU CAN'T ERASE ME! I WON'T DISAPPEAR! MONSTER!"—the Jinchuriki kept his rambling while crawling away from his predator, Naruto just chuckled.

"Well, that's rich coming from you. I'm a monster, aren't I? Yes, I guess you could say that, but only to those that threaten that which is of my interest. I care little for the village, that's for sure, so I don't give two shits about you trying to destroy it."—The blond said as he put a feet on Gaara's back, pushing him to the ground and keeping him in place—"You, however, did more than just threaten this place, didn't you? You are a menace to the people I care about; you actually came very close to taking one of my friends' life. You know him; he is lying just a few yards away from us right now."—He put more pressure on Gaara, making him grunt and try more desperately to get away. Gaara was now a scared cat, or rater a cornered rat, but you know what they say about those.—"How pitiful indeed. You know, I would have given you a second chance once, but as I told Neji before tearing him apart, I no longer give second chances. Even less to whoever goes out of their way and try to harm those close to me."—Gaara wanted to scream in fear at the visage of several tendrils sprouting out of Naruto's body and tearing into his flesh, but he didn't have enough time to do so as he was quickly assimilated into the blonde's biomass.(1)

After absorbing Gaara, Naruto actually stopped his scan of the redhead's brain, lest he ends up just as crazy. However, Naruto didn't have enough time to relax before the Shukaku tried to take hold of him from within. He grunted in pain and exasperation before using Kenshin's mental prowess to reach he confines of his mind.

"**Stupid mortal, you were too arrogant believing I would just be so easily defeated! Now that you so foolishly let me inside your soul I will tear you apart from inside out and use your power for myself!"**—Was what Naruto heard when he got inside his mind, apparently the Shukaku hadn't noticed the blond and was just rambling on.

_Seriously? No wonder that boy, Gaara, was insane. This rat is not better in the head at all._—thought Naruto as he silently got closer to the demon, who was trying to break his will by punching the walls of his psyche. Personally, Naruto wasn't feeling a thing, but he guessed that this beast had done this before so it probably knew what it was doing, better stop it now.—_I wonder if I can re-use kyuubi's seal for this? Nah, better get rid of this idiot altogether. If I keep him sealed all I did to get rid of Kyuubi would be for naught. _"Hey, you rat!"—Naruto called out to the bijuu, who turned around to look at him.

"**Oh, good, you're here. Breaking you will is going to be easier now. Why don't you save us both the trouble and just kneel down while I tear you limb by limb? Or will you try to defeat me now? If you think that it will be just as easy as it was before, then you're mistaken.**** I was weakened out there, but here, I have access to all my power! Yahahahahaha****"**—The shukaku exclaimed gleefully.

"Really? Well, let me remind you of just whose mind this is."—With that said, several psychic constructs surrounded the demon and imprisoned it. The shukaku just laughed and dissolved into sand, which then tried to attack Naruto. The blond just created a shield around himself to avoid the attack.

The Shukaku reformed behind Naruto and tried to squash him, but again several psychic constructs held it. This time however when the raccoon dissolved, Naruto made more constructs and quickly created a box around the sand.

"**Grr, you will be sorry for this, arrogant mortal. Once I break this down I will eat you whole!"**—Naruto was intimidated at all, but what the monster said gave him an idea. The Shukaku started attacking the walls of the box, after a couple of punches Naruto let it be broken. He faked being surprised and tried to avoid the biuu's grasp. When the Shukaku took a hold of him he made good of his promise and put Naruto in his mouth. He covered himself with his biomass armor anyway, just in case.—**"Yahahahaha, I told you I would eat you, you disgusting piece of flesh! Now it's just a matter of time before I control your body!"**

Once inside the demon, Naruto made several tendrils of biomas sprout out of his body and travel slowly all around him, taking a good hold of the Shukaku's entrails and being careful about not getting discovered. The demon had the power of dissolving and reforming itself, so he had to move slowly for now to cover more with his biomass before destroying the demon in one go.

Once he had covered enough with his biomass, he acted as fast as he could. Focusing on enhancing his absorption with Maha's nen he started assimilating the Shukaku at a fast pace. The Shukaku of course noticed the change and tried to dissolve, but Naruto had been able to cover a lot of terrain with his tendrils.

"**No! What are you doing mortal!? Stop right now! Sto…"**—his screech was stopped however when Naruto finally absorbed the last of the Shukaku within himself.

Again, he wasn't able to calm down before being forcefully pulled out of his mind by a sudden pain. When he woke up to the real world he fell to his knees and braced himself as his arms changed against his will. I was apparent that absorbing the bijuu had triggered an evolution of his blacklight powers.

When the transformation was over, Naruto looked at his new weapon. His arms, from shoulder to elbow appeared normal, but further than that it seemed as if the limbs were in a constant state of disintegration. It was like looking at a jet black cloud of dust expanding and compressing constantly. He smirked and decided to try it out right at that moment.

He moved his right arm as if he was giving a punch, but as soon as he completed the motion the cloud that was his arm extended and struck a bunch of trees not far from him. I was like seeing the trees slowly dissolve into nothing. When the cloud returned to its original form, Naruto noticed that it was bigger than before. Again, he smirked and returned his arms to normal before turning and walking towards the still gaping shinobi. As he got closer however he scowled when he noticed they had yet to take Sasuke to get medical attention.

"Well? What are you waiting for?"—He asked the shinobi. When they didn't appear to understand what he was talking about he just shook his head—"there are two injured genin here, and all you can do is stare at an uninjured one? Get you fucking act together!"—He then kneeled and put the unconscious Uchiha over his shoulder, while creating a nen clone of himself to do the same with Sakura.

.-._.-._.

Not far from there the two remaining Suna genin observed in fear as the blond left the battle field as if nothing had happened. Kakuro was held Temari back when she tried to attack the blond.

"Let me go Kankuro! He killed Gaara, let me avenge him."—growled Temari. Kankuro just shook his head.

"I'm sorry Temari, but I can't do that. The kid went head to head with Gaara. Hell, I can go as far as to say Gaara was way outclassed. If I let you go, I won't get you back. I lost a brother today, he hated our guts but he was still our brother, I can't lose my sister too."—Temari deflated at that—"Come, we must go back to Suna. It's obvious this whole mess is over, and not in our favor at all."—the blonde kunoichi nodded and reluctantly followed her younger brother out of the area.

.-._.-._.

**(1)****As I said before, Gaara is actually one of my favorite characters, but this story is writing itself. Naruto here only cares about protecting those he hold close, one of these people is Sasuke seeing how he hasn't done anything bad just yet, maybe in the future this will change, but for now that's how it is. Anyway, he killed Gaara because he was a threat, and unlike canon, he didn't talk him out of his ways because he simply doesn't care****. Gaara was like him, so what? He is an enemy, period. Had they met in other circumstances then maybe things would be different in this story. I'm sorry for killing Gaara, but that's the path this story took.**


	7. Chapter 7

Ch. 5: Aftermath.

The following couple of days went without a hitch. The damage to the village was minimal at most, so there were not many reparations to be made, and what needed to be taken care of was dealt with quickly. The shinobi that witnessed the battles in both gates made sure that the information about Naruto's participation was well spread through the rumor mill, which resulted in the villagers giving him a wide berth. Whether this was because of gratitude or fear was irrelevant to the blond. The third day, however, he was summoned by the council to the Hokage tower.

_I guess they couldn't let me be forever. I suppose I could make them wait a couple of minutes, maybe an hour, bu__t they are sure to be pissed off as it is. I better go now and get this over as soon as possible.—_thought the blond after receiving the message from an ANBU operative.

.-._.-._.

The council of Konoha existed for the purpose of informing the Hokage of the day to day situation, and to make suggestions as to what decisions were necessary when problems arose; officially it held no power in the running of the village. It was composed of several parties who oversaw several aspects of the daily activities of the village. However, one could easily classify all the members in two big categories, shinobies and civilians.

When Naruto arrived a minute after being summoned to the tower he was led to the entrance of the meeting room, he was surprised to find Shikamaru there as well. Once there, the ANBU outside of the door went inside, presumably to inform the council of their arrival, and returned a few seconds later to send them in.

On the shinobi side there the representatives of all the major shinobi clans, the treasurer, the head of the intelligence division in charge of the research and development division as well as the torture and interrogation department, the ANBU commander was also accounted for, and the manager of the hospital. On the civilian side there was the spokesman of the merchants, a representative of the civilian education agency, and another representative of the agriculture workers, among other civilians with high administrative charges.

"Welcome, young shinobi"—said the Hokage once they were inside—"I'm sure you must be wondering why you were summoned for this meeting."—he made a slight pause for them to confirm it, though neither of them humored him—"Well, to answer your question, it has to do with the chuunin exams and your performances during the event, as well as the subsequent invasion to our village. First of all, Shikamaru Nara, this council has reviewed your performance during all the stages of the exams, and we have concluded that you have the right to rise in rank. Your skills in combat are somewhat lacking, nothing that cannot be fixed with a bit of training, but your strategic oriented intellect as well as your awareness of your own limitations makes you a prime example of what a chuunin ought to be. As such, it's my honor as your Hokage to present you with this vest"—he said just as an ANBU moved towards the Nara heir and gave him a green vest—"and the rank of chuunin of Konoha, congratulations."—there was a small round of felicitation from the council, as well as a muttered 'Troublesome' from the newly named chuunin, before the Hokage kept talking—"I'm sure you will prove to be an asset to this village, young Shikamaru. Now, you probably have lots to do and people who will want to celebrate with you so you're dismissed for now."—Shikamaru bowed and left the chamber before the council focused now on Naruto.

"Uzumaki Naruto, you're a different matter altogether."—said Hiruzen—"the history of the chuunin exams has been written with blood since the very first one. However, and this is a matter of great importance, few and sparse have been the times when any shinobi has been forced to kill an agent of their own village. You were not forced, and yet you did kill a comrade."—the man's tone was grave and accusing to say the least—"before this council can take a decision about the outcome of this tournament regarding your promotion or denial of such, we would like to hear what you have to say for yourself."

"And what, honorable council, and Hokage, would you like me to say?"—Asked Naruto with a smirk on his face—"I gave him the chance to give up once, which he refused. That's more than what Suna's Jinchuriki can say. Neji decided his own fate when he insisted on fighting when he was clearly beaten. I don't give second chances, not anymore. He might have been a comrade, a shinobi of Konoha. But that held little to no ground once we both entered that arena, he knew and accepted the consequences of participating in the exams, he also had and refused the chance to keep his life. We are shinobi, mercy is not part of our line of business."—After that the council remained silent, the present individuals sharing glances with each other.

"However crude that might be for some of you,"—said someone behind the Hokage, the person in question revealed himself to be Danzo, the Darkness of Shinobi—"the genin has a point. Hyuuga Neji was outclassed and refused to admit it. One of the reasons we promoted Nara Shikamaru is because he knows his limitations. Hyuuga Neji not only didn't know his own limitations, he refused to accept them when they were presented to him, something that more than once in the history of this village has led to failed missions and unnecessary deaths; this is no different. We are shinobi, our work is to kill our enemies. Hyuuga Neji and Uzumaki Naruto were enemies once they were inside that arena, and as far as mercy goes, the young Uzumaki offered more than what was expected of him. I might go as far as to say he was the only one who demonstrated a true shinobi's nature during his fight. Not to mention that his performance is sure to have left a huge impression in future clients, many of whom might explicitly request Uzumaki for assassination missions. I don't know what you will decide Hokage-sama, but I'm all for promoting this genin."

"That might be your opinion, Danzo. But I would like to hear what the rest of the council has to say before taking a decision."—said Hiruzen through restrained anger. Naruto had to question this attitude, and it didn't take long for his accelerated intellect to come to the conclusion that the Hokage had wanted to use this to reprimand and humble him in order to put himself in a position where he could control his actions once again.

"Sigh, this is too troublesome, but I agree with Danzo. I might not like what Naruto did, but we cannot condemn him for it since it was within the rules and Neji never gave up, so we had no grounds to stop what happened. I will not suggest that you promote him, but I have no ground to stand against such a decision"—Said Shikaku Nara, father of Shikamaru.

"I stand on the same boat as Shikaku. I see no reason to stand against Uzumaki's promotion, his skills on the other hand give me reason to think he is ready to become chuunin"—said the Aburame representative.

"I agree with my peers, he has the skill. But his disregard for his comrades life worries me, I suggest a trial period under surveillance from a Jounin before taking a definite decision"—commented Chouza Akimichi.

"I stand with Chouza, though it's true that he displayed incredible skills, I don't believe it's…safe to trust Naruto with such a responsibility. I believe we should follow Chouza's suggestion, wait and see"—commented Tsume Inuzuka.

"Usually I would agree with Shikaku"—said Inoichi—"but I don't think I would trust Uzumaki with the life of other shinobi right now. A chuunin has to take responsibility for his comrades' lives during a mission. The fact that he killed Neji so easily without remorse during their fight leads me to believe he mustn't be trusted with this rank just yet. He should have to prove he can care for his peers before we can safely say he is ready."

"I oppose his promotion"—said Hiashi, obviously resentful towards the blond for killing his nephew.

"I believe we should test him before promoting him."—said the ANBU commander—"He displayed great skill and we should take advantage of it. I am not exactly in favor of making him a chuunin, but I strongly oppose to him remaining a mere genin, his potential should be put to better use."

"It's really not my place to talk. I was not present during the fight and can only base my opinion on the reports given."—said the manager of the hospital.

"I'm afraid I'm in the same situation"—commented the treasurer.

"And the civilians? What do you have to say about this?"—asked Sarutobi.

"Excuse me Hokage-sama"—interrupted Danzo before any of the civilians could talk—"but I don't think it's appropriate that the civilians should comment on a matter of shinobi nature. I mean no disrespect to the civilian members of this council of course, but it just doesn't seem like something that should be accepted. Civilians don't really know what it's like to be a shinobi, their opinion regarding a shinobi's actions should therefore hold no weight in this situation."—some of the members of the civilian councilors seemed affronted by this, other however seemed to accept the notion.

"I might dislike the boy, that's not secret. He more than once vandalized the installations of my school."—growled the representative of the civilian education agency—"But that's neither here nor there. This is a shinobi situation, and I can't say I know what being a shinobi is like. I can't and won't comment on this matter. I agreed with Danzo-dono, it's not the civilians' place to talk."—after that, more members of the civilian side of the council accepted the fact that they really should have a say in this specific matter.

"Very well, I guess you do have a point."—said Hiruzen amiably, though many detected some underlain anger in his voice—"I have heard all that you have to say, I agree with some of your views. Naruto Uzumaki certainly displayed skills worthy of a chuunin, that's without a question. But his judgement is still not up to par, not where it matters, and so I don't believe he should be made chuunin, he hasn't earned it. However what my ANBU commander said holds true, his potential should be put to better use. Naruto Uzumaki, you will not be promoted to chuunin, that's final. Instead, you will be on a trial period of six months during which you will remain a genin and observed closely while doing missions for chuunin ranked shinobi. After three months you might be promoted at any time if your assigned supervisor deems you ready. If by the end of the six months you have not been promoted, you will remain a genin unless you earn a promotion during future instances of the chuunin exams or receive a field promotion. If anyone is against this, I will hear your reasons."

"I'm against it!"—declared the Hyuuga patriarch severely—"He didn't kill just anyone, he killed a member of my clan, and he is going to get away with it? I cannot stand for this!"

"You forget, Hiashi, that even though he killed your nephew, he did it during a sanctioned event, thus he really wasn't out of line when he did what he did"—commented Shikaku.

"Hokage-sama, I call for this boy's execution for killing a member of my clan!"—growled Hiashi without paying any mind to Shikaku.

"Hiashi!"—growled Tsume Inuzuka—"I understand you're angry at Naruto for killing Neji. We all get it. But you have no grounds to demand his execution; he wasn't acting out of line. The tournament is a risk for everyone, and all the participants were aware of this! Including Neji."

"Stay out of this you bitch!"—shouted the Hyuuga—"Hokage-sama, my clan as a whole won't accept this boy being alive any longer! Let alone accept him becoming a chuunin."

"Is that a command I heard, Hiashi?"—asked Danzo smoothly—"Surely my hearing is going bad, or are you presuming you can order the Hokage around? Also remember this Hiashi, and make sure you relay this to you clan. Young Uzumaki here wasn't acting out of line when he killed Neji because it was during a sanctioned fight. If you or your clan threatens an active shinobi of Konoha, however, the same will not apply. If you seek retribution on this genin, or any other shinobi of the village, without the support of the Hokage, I'm afraid it will be taken as a betrayal towards this village and thus you and possibly your clan will suffer the consequences."

"Hiashi, he is right."—said the Hokage in a severe tone, no one ordered the Hokage what he had to do—"The only way you can seek retrivution without consequence is during a village sanctioned event. Any other time it will count as a betrayal and actions will be taken to terminate the betrayer or betrayers."

"Hokage-sama, if I might interrupt?"—asked Naruto who had remained silent so far—"Hiashi-san here demands retribution. And even if you end up denying him today, he will probably insist later on. Not to mention his clan will be a risk to the village's security if they don't receive some compensation for the perceived slight. They might end up trying a coup d'état."—the elders seemed to stiffen at that possibility—"A sanctioned fight started this; why not end it the same way? I'm willing to accept, with the approval of the Hokage and the council, any kind of event, for lack of a better word, that the Hyuuga clan proposes, along with whatever stipulations the impose, as long as it remains between the Hyuuga and I. The point being that no matter who wins, the matter will be forgotten. Is that agreeable, Hyuuga-san?"

"You're arrogant, boy. Clearly the decision to not make you chuunin was for the best. But yes, I can agree to that."—answered Hiashi.

"So, what do you say Hokage-sama?"—asked Naruto.

"I really don't know what to say to this. I'm not sure this would actually solve the problem."

"But we don't have better suggestions"—commented Homura—"We could ignore Hiashi, but what Naruto says is true, clans have revolted for less than this in other villages."—the elder didn't have to mention the Uchiha for the other elders to relate that matter to this.

"Very well, if you think it's for the best. Hiashi, I accept this…solution, so to speak. You go back to your clan and discuss it with them, come up with whatever event you decide and bring it up to me. We will fix a date then and once it's done this matter will be closed. Meanwhile, any actions taken against Naruto will be considered a betrayal on the Hyuuga's part and retaliation will be swift. Make that clear to your clan."—said Hiruzen with finality—"I believe that covers everything we were aiming to solve today, anyone want something else to be solved now?"

"I do, actually"—commented the manager of the hospital—"I read the reports on the invasion. I took particular interest in Uzumaki's displayed skills. Regardless of how gruesome his methods were to dispose of the enemy, they were unique but constant and might very well be an indicator of a new genetic strain that might develop in a new bloodline limit. I would like to make some tests before affirming anything, but I'm almost sure that it is as I say."

"I'm intrigued by this as well"—agreed Danzo—"I would like to know if the displayed skills are genetic or if they are learnable. If it's the former I would put forth a motion for Uzumaki to start a new clan with these abilities. If it's the later I would like Uzumaki to take an apprentice as soon as possible to start spreading these skills to others. Whatever the case it will surely help strengthen the village."—they would have discussed it further if not for Naruto starting to chuckle mirthfully in the middle of the room.

"It's kind of amusing. You discussing me as if I was not here, it's funny. Whatever, you don't need to do any tests at all; I can tell you right of the bat what you want to know. It's a bit of both actually; it's genetic and can also be 'taught' so to speak. I'm not sure if my descendants will have my abilities from birth, but if they don't it will be easily solved by me giving it to them. You could ask me to spread this ability, but I can assure you that it will only weaken the village. My abilities can be shared in the form of a virus, however only one in every ten individuals could be able to survive the transformation without consequences and only half of the remaining 9 could survive at all, but they would lose all rationality, reverting to a primitive and savage state of mind where they would attack anyone nearby, possibly spreading the virus even more, creating new savages that would keep attacking, in the long run we could easily overcome them, but we would still suffer many loses. It's just not worth the trouble. My descendants would be another matter, I already survived, I already controlled it, so genetically I already have what is needed to keep the virus under control, something that would pass on to my children and theirs. So while, yes, it's possible to give my bloodline to others, it's a big risk that would result in the village being weakened."

"You seem awfully sure of this, but how?"—said Danzo in an accusing manner.

"The ability I'm talking about is the only one I'm sure that can be shared or spread, however, it's not the only ability I have that could be classified as a bloodline."—Naruto said with a smirk on his face, one that showed he was getting his kicks from the situation. And with good reason, for everyone's interest was picked when he said that.

"Explain yourself"—said the Hokage. Naruto's smirk only grew wider.

"I recently gained several unique abilities that can be classified as bloodline limits. The one we have been discussing is called Blacklight and it gives me a set of particularly useful skills. For starters I can decompose organic matter into biomass and assimilate it into myself. This particular skill is the base for several others, polymorphism being the most prominent"—he said this while transforming himself into several different shinobies he had consumed during his month outside the village and during the invasion—"Basically, when I assimilate a sentient being"—A few councilmen grew greener at the thought—"I get all of their memories, and I can transform into them as well as replicate their mannerisms to the smallest detail, I can basically replace them without a problem. I can also transform my body into several forms to adapt to different situations"—he transformed his arms into claws, then into muscle mass and finally into hammerfist before going back to normal—"After assimilating certain things this skill in particular, evolves and allows me a wider variety of transformations. The most recent one being after I assimilated Suna's jinchuriki. By the way, Shukaku no longer exists. Blacklight also enhances several natural traits of my body, strength, speed, reflexes, flexibility, and resilience among others. This is what my descendants will be sure to have, one way or another."

"It seems very impressive, the sheer magnitude of your combat potential as well as infiltration make of this ability an invaluable asset for the village"—commented Koharu—"Wouldn't you agree Hokage-sama?"

"Indeed"—muttered Hiruzen, not at all happy that Naruto had such power, it could become problematic to put him down if he went against the village. It seemed that trying to control him would be more of a curse than a blessing, he better not alienate him, at least not while he wasn't sure he could be put down.

"I understand that these abilities are only from the 'Blacklight', however you said you had more?"—inquired Danzo; already thinking of strengthening the village with this. Maybe making a few experiments with his ROOT and this Blacklight.

"There is also the one called Intuitive Aptitude, this ability is what makes me be sure of everything I'm telling you. This ability is to put it simply, the ability to understand. I instinctively analyze everything to its basest form and work out how it's done, I can replicate jutsu like the sharingan does, but by a different process. The sharingan copies the process while I understand it and learn how to do it myself. I cannot predict my enemy's movements with this, unlike the sharing which is able to predict someone's movements, but the fact that I understand something to the core means that I can actually make it better, find flaws and so on. Like the chidori that Sasuke used during his match with Gaara; I found its flaws by just looking at it once. I didn't bother to make it better because I already have something that is better, weaker but more effective. Which brings me to another of my abilities, electro kinesis. If there was a sensor present during the finals and you asked them what they felt when I covered my hands in electricity during my fight with Neji, they will tell you they felt nothing. Electro kinesis essentially allows me to use lightning jutsu without chakra"

"That's impossible"—said Homura with a calm voice. Naruto's only answer was to activate his gigawatt blades, silently challenging everyone to try and feel any speck of chakra in it.

"Incredible"—muttered Koharu who was a weak sensor, but at this dinstance it should not be a problem.—"I can't feel any chakra in that technique, it's unheard of."

"Another very useful skill for an infiltrator. He would be able to attack at any time without compromising his position."—commented Danzo offhandedly.

"There is also my telekinesis"—said Naruto, placing everyone's attention back on him—"You saw me using it when I killed Neji"—he then made a movement with his hands and one of the windows of the room opened, before closing with another motion of Naruto's hand—"Any comments?"—he asked while looking at Koharu.

"It doesn't use any chakra either"—she said somewhat awed at this.

"Exactly, as a matter of fact none of my abilities uses chakra, and if you were to look deeper you would find out that I no longer have chakra in my system."—everyone grew alarmed at this, Hiashi especially started to sweat when he tried to use his Byakugan only to confirm what Neji had said during the tournament. The Byakugan could see chakra, but how do you see someone without chakra?—"That's because I now have something called Nen. It's another type of energy, present in everyone, this ability can actually be taught, but it would take years before someone can use it effectively. It's also more flexible than chakra and allows a wider variety of techniques to be performed with it. There is also the fact that it cannot be felt by anyone who doesn't know how to use it as well. Only a nen user can feel another nen user. And techniques performed with nen cannot be seen by anyone who doesn't use nen. The techniques I showed you before are not within this category because they belong to a different ability. Basically with Nen I could use invisible jutsu. For example this."—he then focused in a plant on one corner of the rom and inhaled air before exhaling like one does when using a Katon jutsu. To everyone's surprise the plant started to become ash as if it was being burned. Hiashi once again used his byakugan and once again was amazed by what he was seeing, or rather not seeing. Koharu was also amazed when she didn't feel any chakra at all.—"Also"—Naruto said making everyone look at him in awe, there was more?—"Nen can be used, just like chakra, to enhance someone's physical attributes like strength or speed. How much something is enhanced depends completely on how determined a person is, which is one of the main differences between chakra and Nen. With chakra you would need better control to do just that, with nen you only need to be stubborn. Coupled with Blacklight I could easily destroy mountains. Lastly I have an exponentially accelerated body. My movement speed only becomes higher the longer I keep running. This ability I call Quicksilver only because it sounds cool. So, any questions?"—Naruto asked while chuckling at everyone's wide eyed face.

"I have a question actually"—said Danzo after finishing daydreaming about all the power the village would gain if this new set of skills was used properly.—"How did you get these abilities?"

"Ah, now that's the million ryo question, isn't it?"—chuckled Naruto—"Well, it's quite the tale and to answer that I would need to make you a question first. How much do you know about demonic foxes?"—He only grew more amused when everyone gasped.—"I knew that would be your answer. Well, let me tell you a little tidbit you might not know about demon foxes, and the bijuu in general. Bijuu were born many millenniums ago. I'm not sure exactly how many, but I can tell you it was more than 10. Bijuu, by what Kyuubi told me, grow stronger every 1000 years, and it shows by them growing a new tail every time, until they reach their tenth tails; the first to reach 10 tails becomes the demon king by what I understand. This doesn't occur if they have been sent to makai before the 1000 years count is finished. When that happens they have to get out of makai and wait another 1000 years before they can achieve their next rise in power. To make this story short I will just tell you that as of a few weeks ago the Kyuubi became Juubi and the demons have a new king."

"You're referring to the energy wave that was felt almost a month ago, aren't you?"—asked the ANBU commander.—"So, what does that have to do with this?"

"You all are learning of this just now, I however knew of the Kyuubi's rise in power since the end of my mission in Wave country. During which I lost consciousness and got to meet the Kyuubi, who let this information slip. I threatened to send the Kyuubi to makai, as it was in my power to do, before he could become the king of demons and thus making him wait another 1000 years, unless he acceded to grant me a few requests. He is the Kyuubi so of course he wouldn't relent so easily. We struck a deal."

"You let the demon free, didn't you?"—Afirmed Danzo—"You have put us all in a great danger boy! With the Juubi free we cannot be sure it won't attack us."

"WHAT!?"—shouted the others in the room.

"Boy! Do you realize how foolish it was to free that monster? It could be on its way to attack us right now!"—shouted one civilian.

"Oh, but I'm sure he won't."—answered Naruto—"The deal consisted of two compromises for each of us. First I would let the Kyuubi become king of demons and in exchange he would summon the ten strongest souls he could find and give me the power of the ten souls. In the end he only game be six, since the other four had nothing to contribute to me other than knowledge, so, besides the six abilities I mentioned before, I got 484 years' worth of knowledge in several subjects, ranging from sciences to war strategies and combat experience. I know how to treat injuries of any kind in the middle of a battlefield without the use of chakra. I got personal infiltration and kenjutus experience from another soul and finally have a small arsenal of illusions I can use to make anyone crazy if I so wish. Since he didn't give me four of the ten souls I demanded the Juubi to seal my chakra away. With this last clause to our deal, I am now undetectable by chakra, as Hyuuga-san has proven, and I'm immune to Genjutsu as well."(1)

"Hmm, not to mention no one can put seals on you and expect them to keep working after a couple of weeks"—mentioned Homura.—"seals put on a person feed for the first few days on whatever chakra was used to create them, but after that they use the subject's chakra to keep working. A person without chakra to keep feeding the seal will only be under its effects for a couple of days before it stops working."

"What was the second part of your deal with the demon?"—Asked Danzo, trying to bring the conversation back to what's important.

"The second part was that after I received the ten souls' power I would free the Juubi. In exchange of this, the Juubi is word bound to not attack any place I call home. I want this to be clear to the civilians, and they better spread the word. I could very easily deide this is not my home and stablish myself in other village, effectively protecting that village against Juubi and leaving Konoha open to attack. The Juubi and I are not the same, and I won't tolerate anyone trying to take actions against me or those I care about. The Juubi will stay away as long as I draw breath and consider this place my home, but if they so much as look me the wrong way, I could easily decide to leave and let the Juubi have his way with all of you. Right now I'm the only thing keeping this village safe from the Juubi, it's your decision whether that stays that way for a long or a short time."

"And how can you be sure the Juubi won't break its promise?"—asked Danzo.

"I'm not, but he hasn't tried yet and it has been a month since he got his freedom back. I don't think he intends to go back on his word. Besides, if he breaks his promise I'm sure I can deal with him."

"It might not have attacked just yet, but the fact is that it hasn't attacked anywhere. It's possible the Juubi is only waiting before it strikes us."—Said Shikaku—"Troublesome, discussing this is of no use, the Juubi has been freed and there is nothing we can do about that. We must instead prepare in case it does attack."

"I agree with Shikaku. We can't do anything to revert this situation; we must instead be ready for whatever repercussions Uzumaki's actions might have."—said Shibi.

"On that note"—started Danzo—"the Juubi is not the only threat for the village right now. What are we going to do with Suna?"

"What is there to do, Danzo? We defeated them and that's that."—said Hiruzen.

"We defeated them, sure. But the fact remains that they were bold enough to attack us in the first place. We must take action against them, this was clearly and act of war."

"They were tricked by Orochimaru."—replied the Hokage—"I cannot in good conscience order an attack on Suna for that."

"And what kind of message do you think our other enemies will get? That they can attack and there won't be retaliation, that's what! We must show, not only Suna, but the other villages as well, that we won't take such attacks standing down."—many of the council seemed to agree with Danzo's words, but Hiruzen wouldn't give up.

"They are our allies, who were unfortunately manipulated by Orochimaru. It's Orochimaru we should be focusing on!"

"I'm not sure if you people will take my words into account"—said Naruto—"I'm not part of the council so you probably won't care for what I have to say. But if you will hear me. I actually agree with Danzo-dono. Suna is our ally? Please, they clearly don't think so. The fact of the matter is that they wanted to attack us for one or other reason; they just didn't have the guts, the strength or the opportunity to do it. Orochimaru just gave them the push they needed, but the seed was there from before, they wouldn't have attacked otherwise. Hokage-sama, you say we should focus on Orochimaru; I disagree. That man has been a rogue for more than a decade and we haven't been able to find him, he clearly knows how to hide well. Focusing on him would only serve to waste our resources and while we do that, others could take the same opportunity he did to embolden Suna to attack us again. Orochimaru is a problem, but so is Suna now that they have shown their true colors, and unlike Orochimaru, we know where to find them and we know they are licking their wounds. What Danzo-dono says holds true, we must show our enemies, known and unknown, that we aren't to be messed with. If we let Suna get away with attacking us, others will soon follow."

"Silence! I won't order an attack on our allies. It would only make other allies and potential allies afraid of us. This decision is final! I won't change my mind."

"You were once appraised as the God of Shinobi."—said Naruto—"I didn't know you then, but either you have gone soft, or you're overrated."

"I'm the Hokage and I stand by my decision. I will not be judged by a mere genin. This meeteing is adjourned, dismissed!"—growled the Hokage.

Soon everyone had left and only the Hokage remained in the room.

"What do you think, Jiraya?"—asked the Hokage to no one. Soon after a new person appered in front of him.

"He has become crueler, desensitized. Nothing like his parents. And too powerful."

"Too powerful indeed. What should we do? He is a wild card as it stands."

"I'm not sure, sensei. I don't know what we could do about him. Initially I would have suggested you gave him to me so that I could train him and try to mold him. But by what I observed he cannot be molded any longer, and we really shouldn't give him more power than he has."—he looked through the window only to see Danzo approaching the blond in question.—"If he is indeed the one of the prophecy, I'm afraid peace is not what awaits this world."

.-._.-._.

"Uzumaki, a word if you please."—said Danzo as he approached Naruto.

"Danzo-dono, sure. What can I do for you?"

"I'm intrigued by you, not many would support an act of war nowadays, let alone a genin. This village has been at peace for so long that the people here don't want to let it go, even when it's necessary."—Danzo gave him a calculative look—"I have a proposition for you, if you will hear me. But not here, let's find some place more private. Follow me."—Naruto nodded and both departed.

.-._.-._.

**(1) Note that Naruto never mentioned the souls being from other dimensions. I can only imagine what a militaristic village would try if they knew there were other dimensions out there from which they could get unique powers.**

**WOOOOOOW! This has to be the longest chapter I have ever written and it was pure dialogue!**

**Anyway. I got free from school a couple of days before I predicted (yay!). I wrote this chapter to get back in the mood for writing. I will start working in my next updates now and publish them as soon as they are finished. Though I will also be reading a lot about Pathfinder because I'm going to start playing P****&****P RPG games to get rid of this boredom I have been condemned to. And my father will probably 'insist' in me going to the gym again while claiming that no one is forcing me to go…yes, he actually expects that to work. **


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